Public property ballgame question.

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Senior Member

My son is on a 9-10 rec league basketball team. Tonight we were playing the team with us for 1st place. They were a good team and beat us. During the game a couple of players for our team got fouled hard and the refs didn't call it. One of their mothers told the ref off and he told her to leave now. She did and another guy did too after they threw him out too. Did I mention we were playing rec director's son's team? No one has gotten close to getting thrown out of another game. My question is did she have to leave legally since she was not using foul language or not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and was on public property? It seems like I remember a high school football game in South Georgia and a ref telling a guy to leave the stands, but the guy said no. The sheriff was called, but they could throw the guy out because he had not committed a crime.

"I'm going to offer a choice-do you want an empty life or meaningful death." -The Mandarin

Senior Member

As I understand it, I was a licensed soccer coach in my younger days, the team is responsible for its fans.
So the coach of the offenders team can solve the issue or the team can suffer.
These things happen, and the law is seldom really needed.

"We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality." -- Ayn Rand

Senior Member

As I understand it, I was a licensed soccer coach in my younger days, the team is responsible for its fans.
So the coach of the offenders team can solve the issue or the team can suffer.
These things happen, and the law is seldom really needed.

She and the other guy left peacefully. The same ref gave our coach a technical our last game for asking him 'where are they taking the ball our?'. Now he had asked the ref and he didn't answer a couple of times so he got louder and louder, but still. I heard what the woman said 'call it both ways, our boys are getting hurt and you are not calling it both ways'. She was screaming it and I was actually saying the same thing, but the ref could have ignored her. He motioned for her to be quiet, and she said 'no you need to protect both team's players instead of just them' and he told her to leave now. The bad part was he wasn't even the ref causing the problems. He was doing a good job, but the older ref kept over-ruling him from the other end of the court. For instance, one of our players stopped with the ball and their player hit him from behind and pushed him into making a step. The younger ref called a foul, but the other said, 'no, walking' and the young guy did not stand up for his call. That happened all game. Our team and coach never quit and we almost came back. I really think the older ref heard us complaining and was doing it on purpose to tweak us. Bizarre situation.

"I'm going to offer a choice-do you want an empty life or meaningful death." -The Mandarin

Senior Member

I have found that a well worded complaint to the governing body of the sport can go a long way to correct biased or overzealous officiating.
And numerous complaints are even better.
But they should be accurate and not include any of the writers biases.
The only problem is that they only effect future games.

"We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality." -- Ayn Rand

Senior Member

In my "career " as a soccer coach I found that youth sports are a quagmire of petty jealousy and inflated egos.
And there is often a lot of money and therefore expectations involved.
Every parent sees their child as the next superstar.
And the children often feed off of their parents antics.
But otherwise it was loads of fun.....

"We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality." -- Ayn Rand

Senior Member

In my "career " as a soccer coach I found that youth sports are a quagmire of petty jealousy and inflated egos.
And there is often a lot of money and therefore expectations involved.
Every parent sees their child as the next superstar.
And the children often feed off of their parents antics.
But otherwise it was loads of fun.....

My son is not a good player yet. This is his 3rd year and the first, he could not dribble, last year he could not get the ball to the goal, but his coach is great this year and has brought him up a bunch. He never complains about refs, but this time he did. The other coach yelled at the refs loud and said they didn't know what they were doing and he did not even get a warning. My son loves playing with this coach. I will write a non-aggressive email stating my concerns about the ref and ask that they not be used in any future games. I was also informed of him getting in trouble with the law after law enforcement got a tip from his day job about possible underage girls [11-17] on his computer. The pictures they found were not illegal because of lack of nudity. Still a guy who has interests in young girls should not be refereeing games with young children, especially girls that he has access to at his business of sporting goods and during and after games.

"I'm going to offer a choice-do you want an empty life or meaningful death." -The Mandarin

Senior Member

The ref thing is something you’ll have to get used to. SADly there is always gonna be a lousy one that shouldn’t Be working. The coach or ref is generally responsible for fans and local leagues decide who.

Go and hide in a hole if you like,The All Father has woven the skein of your life long ago.

Retired Moderator

In my "career " as a soccer coach I found that youth sports are a quagmire of petty jealousy and inflated egos.
And there is often a lot of money and therefore expectations involved.
Every parent sees their child as the next superstar.
And the children often feed off of their parents antics.
But otherwise it was loads of fun.....

I coached little league for 10 years. Never my own. Loved working with the kids.
Parents not so much. Not much worse than the mom of a 10 year old who thinks her child has been wronged. Dads can be just as bad but are not near as vocal.

In my opinion it is the kid that learns to love the game, not the ones who learn to blame the Refs and coaches that become better players.

Senior Member

I coached a competitive team. Which means the child had to make the team, the parent had to pay a fee, and we traveled all over the state to play.
So it got intense at times. The kids were the reason I put up with it.
I often told parents that maybe they could find a better team than mine. None ever left.

"We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality." -- Ayn Rand

useless thread starter

When my son played little league baseball I saw a mother climb a six foot fence to get to our pitchers mother over a brush back pitch. Coaches wife and son pitcher. Heck of a good cat fight. Both went to jail.

Senior Member

I think it's horrible that parents get violent. I have never heard a parent in our county talk about kids, it's just the refs. I get really mad when the refs don't protect players evenly. I don't root against any kid. One time I nearly got in trouble because a boy on my sons team kept elbowing the other the team's players. About what I said about the guy, it was not entirely correct. He did get in enough trouble that he could not ref or be around kids for 3 years to avoid the sex offender registry. I'm way more concerned about that. That actually makes me sick knowing this. Several of us parents plan on making sure our rec department knows this come next week.

"I'm going to offer a choice-do you want an empty life or meaningful death." -The Mandarin

Senior Member

Senior Member

One of the problems with recreation league sports is the quality of the officials. You ain’t gonna get NBA caliber officials in a rec league. Most of them are just getting started trying to pick up some extra money. Still frustrating though.

"The significant problems we are facing cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." Albert Einstein

Senior Member

Somewhere in the association bylaws, you will find something similar to this:

* The shouting and or yelling including swearing or vulgarity of any kind, other than encouraging remarks to the player, managers, coaches, field officials and any other officials shall constitute grounds for expulsion from the area and possibly the Association.

Administrator

IMO, folks get way, way, way, way, way, too worked up over sports in general. It's just a game. You will never agree with all the refs. Nobody will know the difference about any of it a hundred years from now. I went through years of sports with my son. I reminded myself, it's just a game.

Son, I ain't sayin' what's right or wrong, I'm just sayin' how it is.....Black Oak ArkansasMy uncle came running when he heard us screaming and pulled the monkey off me.....Fish Hawk

Retired Moderator

IMO, folks get way, way, way, way, way, too worked up over sports in general. It's just a game. You will never agree with all the refs. Nobody will know the difference about any of it a hundred years from now. I went through years of sports with my son. I reminded myself, it's just a game.

Senior Member

I've been coaching a very long time at the youth and adult level. Referees and umpires are a dying breed. Years ago you would get a retired man or woman wanted to make a few bucks and really cared about the game, but now they don't bother because of all of the lip that they have to take. People aren't smart enough to realize that MLB, NBA, and NFL have all instituted instant replay because of errors, yet some whining parent thanks they should have eagle eyes in lightning reflexes. I have yet to see a parent stand Up and scream that an umpire missed a call in favor of their team and asking them to correct it

Umpires don't have the ability to force someone to leave a public field. The parks department could possibly ask them to leave. And umpire can certainly sanction the team for the offensive behavior. I have seen them force a forfeit